Unmon's “One Statement, Inverted”

Engo's commentary on the case

This monk was unquestionably an expert: he knew how to ask this way. At first this is called requesting instruction. It is a question that presents understanding and also a question that conceals its edge. Anyone but Unmon would have been helpless. Unmon possessed the necessary hands. Since the monk brought the question, Unmon had no choice but respond. Why? An expert teacher is like a bright mirror on its stand: when a foreigner comes, the foreigner appears; when a Han comes, the Han appears. An ancient said, “If you want intimacy, do not bring a question to ask.” Why? The question is in the answer and the answer in the question. When have the sages ever possessed one Dharma to give people? Where is there some Zen Way that comes to you? If you do not create hellish action, you naturally do not receive a hellish result. If you do not create a heavenly cause, you naturally do not receive a heavenly result. Every karmic condition is made and received by oneself. The ancients told you distinctly: this matter is not in words. If it were, do the three vehicles and twelve divisions of teaching lack words? What further use would the patriarch's journey from the west have served? The preceding case said, “In response: one statement.” Here Unmon says, “One statement, inverted.” Only one graph differs; why are they a thousand distinctions apart? Where is the gnarled point? Thus it is said, “Dharma proceeds according to Dharma; the Dharma banner is established wherever one stands.” “When it is not the working before the eyes, nor the affair before the eyes—what then?” It requires only one direct mark. A person with eyes cannot be deceived by even a single mark. Because the question is gnarled, the answer must be like this. In truth Unmon rides the thief's horse to pursue the thief. Some misunderstand: “Originally it was the host's phrase, but the guest spoke it; therefore Unmon said ‘inverted.’” What desperate urgency makes them do this? The monk asked well. Why did Unmon not answer with different words? Why only “One statement, inverted”? Unmon smashed the monk's basis all at once. Yet saying even this is gouging a wound in healthy flesh. Why? Once verbal traces arise, white clouds stretch ten thousand miles: this is where divergent paths begin. Even if there were suddenly no words at all, when did exposed pillars and lanterns ever have words? Do you understand? If not, here you must turn and move before knowing where it lands. Setchō too was an expert. Beneath one phrase he immediately says, “Divide off one joint.” Clearly he lets one move pass and walks hand in hand with the monk. Setchō always possessed a method of release. He dared enter mud and water with you, sharing death and life. That is why he versifies this way. In truth there is nothing else: he only wants to free you from sticking and binding, pull nails, and extract wedges. Yet now, because of his words, you generate still more emotional interpretation. Gantō said, “Though Seppō was born on the same branch as I, he did not die on the same branch.” Unless someone has penetrated with the whole working and attained great freedom, how could he share death and life with you? He has no leakage through gain and loss, right and wrong. Dongshan named three leakages by which one distinguishes genuine and false people of the matter above: leakage through emotion, through view, and through language.⁴ In leakage through view, the working never leaves its position and falls into a poisoned sea. In leakage through emotion, wisdom constantly turns toward and away, leaving seeing one-sided and withered. In leakage through language, one embodies subtlety but loses the source; the working is dark about beginning and end. There are also three mysteries: mystery within essence, mystery within the phrase, and mystery within mystery. When the ancients reached this domain, whole working and great function met life by sharing your life and death by sharing your death. They laid themselves across a tiger's mouth and let it carry them a thousand miles, because they possessed this one move. “Of eighty-four thousand, none was a phoenix feather.” At Vulture Peak were eighty-four thousand sages, but none was a phoenix feather. The History of the Southern Dynasties tells of Xie Chaozong, son of Xie Feng, a brilliant writer without equal at court. After reading his memorial composition, Emperor Wu exclaimed, “Chaozong truly has a phoenix feather.” “Phoenix feather” thus means the exceptional child of an exceptional parent.⁵ At Vulture Peak the fourfold assembly gathered. The World-Honored One held up a flower; Kāśyapa alone broke into a faint smile. The others did not know the meaning. Hence Setchō says none of the eighty-four thousand was a phoenix feather. “Thirty-three people entered the tiger's cave.” Ānanda asked Kāśyapa, “Apart from the gold-brocade robe, what Dharma did the World-Honored One transmit?” Kāśyapa called, “Ānanda!” “Yes?” “Take down the flagpole before the gate.” Ānanda awakened.⁶ Thereafter patriarch transmitted to patriarch: thirty-three in India and China possessed the hands to enter a tiger's cave. An ancient said, “Without entering the tiger's cave, how can you get its cub?” Unmon was this kind of person, able to share death and life. A teacher must serve people this way: seated on the curved wooden seat, willing to let you smash it and stroke the tiger's whiskers. One must truly reach this ground and carry the seven necessary things before sharing life and death. Lower the high; raise the low; give to the insufficient. Rescue one on a solitary peak into wild grass; rescue one fallen in wild grass onto a solitary peak. If you enter boiling cauldrons and furnace coals, I enter too—not for any other reason, only to free you from bonds, pull nails and wedges, remove bridle and pack saddle. Reverend Pingtian wrote: Spiritual light is not obscured; through ten thousand ages, the honored pattern. Enter this gate and retain no intellectual understanding. Distinct! Distinct! Bustling, rushing—the moon in the water. There is unquestionably a road of emergence and a life-giving working. Setchō raises it and lets people awaken to living function for themselves. Do not follow his words. Follow them, and you are precisely “bustling, rushing—the moon in the water.” How can you now become peaceful? Let one move pass.